Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent drama film based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender male who was raped and murdered on December 31, 1993 by his male friends after they found out he had female genitalia. The film features Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena and Chloë Sevigny as Brandon's girlfriend, Lana Tisdel.
Boys Don’t Cry received overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics, especially the two lead performances from Swank and Sevigny, and considering its reasonably low budget, and independent production, it was a box office success, with most of the success coming from word of mouth and critical views. Swank was awarded the 1999 Academy Award for Best Actress, and Sevigny was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.
The film is set in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Falls City, Nebraska, but was mainly filmed in Greenville, Texas, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Its release was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, which sparked additional public interest in the film.[1]
Plot
Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) was a female-to-male pre-operative transsexual. His birth name was Teena Renae Brandon.
One day, after receiving physical threats for dating a person's sister, and involvement in a bar fight, Brandon is evicted by his cousin from the trailer they shared. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton III), and their friends Candace (Alicia Goranson) and Lana (Chloë Sevigny). Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his situation.
Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women’s section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After inquiring why Teena was in a woman’s prison, Brandon lies to Lana saying he was born a hermaphrodite and will soon receive a sex change. Lana declares her love for Brandon, saying quote "no matter what he is."
Lotter, Nissen, and Candace discover Brandon has female genitalia and tell Lana after forcing him to remove his pants. Later, Nissen and Lotter chase Brandon, then beat and violently rape him in an isolated lot near a meat-processing plant. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.
Nissen and Lotter get drunk, and despite Lana's warnings, decide to kill Brandon, who is hiding in a shed on Candace's property. Lotter shoots Brandon and Nissen shoots Candace while Lana screams for them to stop. Nissen stabs Brandon's lifeless body and nearly shoots Lana.
The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body, then falls into her mother's arms. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote her is read in a voice-over.
Cast
Background
Sevigny initially auditioned for the role of Brandon, however Peirce decided she would be better suited as Lana, and Katherine Moennig auditioned for Brandon's role. Swank eventually signed onto the project as the lead. Hundreds of other actresses had been considered and rejected over the course of three years. She told director Kimberly Peirce that, like her character, she was also 21 and came from Lincoln, Nebraska. But she was lying, and when Peirce later confronted her with the lies, she responded, "But that's what Brandon would do." Swank prepared for the role by living life as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way that Brandon Teena did. When Swank was living as a man to prepare for the role of Brandon Teena, she was so convincing that her neighbors believed that the young man (Swank in male character) coming and going from Swank's home was her visiting brother.
Diane Keaton had considered directing, with Drew Barrymore in the lead role. Kimberly Peirce first came across the story when reading a long article in The Village Voice written by Donna Minkowitz which was published a few months after the murder. Peirce said that she used the same shots in the opening roller rink scene that were used in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first left her house and entered the land of Oz.
Chloë Sevigny as Lana Tisdel
The title of the film is taken from a song by The Cure. A cover of the song also plays in the background at one point.
Response
Boys Don’t Cry drew immense critical acclaim in 1999, and managed to be a moderate box office success, despite being independently financed and a relatively low budget production ($2 million) - mainly because of word-of-mouth. It also became a huge success through sales and rentals in 2000. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times listed it as one of his five best films of 1999, stating "This could have been a clinical Movie of the Week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame"[2] while Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "stunning", giving it four out of four stars.[3]
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "certified fresh" rating of 89% based on 73 reviews.[4]
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".[5]
Controversy
Major details of the actual rape and murder of Brandon Teena were changed in the film version. Most notably, the film portrays a double murder, when in actuality, three people were murdered. Philip DeVine, 19, Leslie Lambert's (Lisa's sister) boyfriend, was shot to death on a couch; he was completely absent from the film. Lisa Lambert, 24, simply named Candace in the movie, was found dead with Brandon. The survivor at the murder house was a boy, not a girl.
Lana Tisdel sued the film's producers for invasion of privacy and the unauthorized use of her name and likeness before the film's release. She claimed that the film depicted her as "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake". Tisdel also claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Teena after she discovered Teena was anatomically and biologically female. She eventually settled her lawsuit against the movie's distributor, Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum.[6][7]
Along with the portrayal of the actual ordeal and the people involved, Boys Don't Cry garnered significant controversy for its graphic rape scene. Initially assigned with an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, the content was strongly toned down for the US release, which was rated R for violence including an intense brutal rape scene, sexual content, language, and drug use.
The director of Boys Don't Cry, Kimberly Pierce, was interviewed for the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated about the trouble the film had with the MPAA. The double rape caused some big problems with the MPAA and had to be trimmed to avoid an NC-17 rating. The European version is more explicit (especially with the first rape).
Swank received criticism from the family of Brandon Teena for her repeated use of the male-gendered pronoun 'he' in her Oscar acceptance speech. Teena's mother argued that her daughter's transgenderism was a defense mechanism that was developed in response to childhood sexual abuse, rather than being an expression of his gendered sense of self: "She pretended she was a man so no other man could touch her."[8] Swank later apologized, but many transgender activists asserted that she was correct in referring to Teena as a man, as this was the gender in which he preferred to live and act. In an interview, Swank said in relation to her performance in Boys Don't Cry that "I don't think there is anything more challenging than playing someone of the opposite sex."
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on November 11, 1999 by Koch Records.
- "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" - Nina Persson and Nathan Larson
- "A New Shade of Blue" - The Bobby Fuller Four
- "She's Got a Way" - The Smithereens
- "Who's That Lady?" - The Isley Brothers
- "Codine Blues" - The Charlatans
- "Silver Wings" - The Knitters
- "Who Do You Love" - Quicksilver Messenger Service
- "Tuesday's Gone" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- "Haunt" - Roky Erickson
- "Dustless Highway" - Nathan Larson
- "What's Up With That?" - The Dictators
- "Why Can't We Live Together?" - Timmy Thomas
Awards and nominations
The film won 40 awards and was nominated for 27 other awards.
- Academy Awards:
- Won: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Hilary Swank)
- Nominated: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Chloë Sevigny)
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Hilary Swank)
- Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Chloë Sevigny)
- BAFTA Awards:
- Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Hilary Swank)
- National Board of Review:
- Won: Breakthrough Performance - Female (Hilary Swank)
- Won: Outstanding Directorial Debut (Kimberly Peirce)
- Satellite Awards:
- Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Hilary Swank)
- Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Drama (Chloë Sevigny)
- Nominated: Best Picture - Drama
- Nominated: Best Director (Kimberly Peirce)
See also
References
External links
